Archive | The Teflon League

On February 15, 2014, Ray Rice, the star running back for the Baltimore Ravens, punched his fiancee Janay Palmer in the face. She was knocked cold, either by the punch or when her head hit the handrail of an Atlantic City hotel elevator, a moment immortalized by the small security camera in the corner.

Like many Americans, Renee Miller plays fantasy football.
Unlike many Americans, Renee Miller is a neuroscientist.
This has helped her develop a unique view of fantasy football; she has studied the effect of cognitive bias on the game, and writes regularly for fantasy football websites advising players to eliminate their biases and personal attachments from the fantasy football decision-making process, one Miller says is best based solely on cold statistics rather than the imperfect gut or the fallible heart.

The Eastside Lounge, part of the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel, is hosting a party to watch the Super Bowl. For $150, there will be an all-you-can-eat and drink menu. There will, however, be one thing missing from the party.

On Friday before the Super Bowl, hundreds of reporters assembled in Phoenix for Roger Goodell’s annual State of the League press conference. Once again the orchestrated event — this year humility was the predominant message — served as little more than a public relations exercise for an organization that, facing criticism for its handling of a litany of controversies over recent years, has increasingly sought to control the media agenda.

Detailed studies and statistics couldn’t do it. Expert medical testimony was ignored. Not even player suicides could shake the National Football League out of a denial reminiscent of the tobacco industry’s ‘smoking doesn’t cause cancer’ campaign.

But after years of dismissing the link between repeated concussions and long-term brain injury, the multi-billion dollar league may soon be forced to pay for its role in the suffering of many of its retired players.